Absorbent articles, such as diapers and adult incontinence products are well known articles of staple manufacturing. Multiple attempts have been made to provide them with an overall good fit and with a high absorbent capacity. Modern diapers make use of absorbent polymer materials or so-called superabsorbent materials, which allow for storage of amounts of liquid as high as 300 ml of in a typical baby diaper.
While such a diaper is generally a disposable product it is in some instances worn over many hours and worn in a dry state as well as in a urine loaded state.
Hence, to provide good wearing comfort it is very important to keep the absorbent materials of a diaper or other absorbent article in their intended position, both when the article is dry and when the article is fully or partially loaded with urine (or other bodily liquids).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,783 (Elias) discloses an absorbent article with a core comprising pockets of absorbent hydrocolloid material. These pockets are provided as to confine the movement of the hydrocolloid material, in particular when the article is fully or partially loaded with urine. The pockets form part of an absorbent layer and are typically provided from cellulose material. Hence, to achieve good immobilization of the hydrocolloid material according to the teaching of this patent, a relatively high amount of cellulosic material is required. Moreover, the provision of such pockets may hinder the free distribution of liquid to the more absorbent areas of the core, for example the areas of hydrocolloid materials.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,706 (Palumbo) discloses an absorbent structure comprising two fibre layers and an intermediate layer. This intermediate layer comprises an absorbent hydrogel material in an amount exceeding 120 g/m2 and particles of an thermoplastic material. While this construction certainly provides good immobilisation of the absorbent hydrogel particles in the dry state, it seems that only a lesser immobilisation can be achieved in the urine loaded state. The disclosed thermoplastic materials appear to swell much less than the disclosed hydrogel materials. Therefore, in particular when the absorbent structure is to be used in a product to absorb high amounts of liquids, for example a diaper, the wet immobilisation may not be fully satisfactory.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,497 (Tanzer) discloses an absorbent article which includes superabsorbent material located in discrete pockets. The absorbent article comprises a first and a second carrier layer and water-sensitive attaching means for securing together the carrier layers and to provide a plurality of pocket regions. The article comprises high-absorbency material located within said pocket regions. The water-sensitive attachment means provides a wet strength which is less than a separating force imparted by a swelling of that high-absorbency material when that high-absorbency material is exposed to an aqueous liquid. The absorbent article is said to provide an absorbent structure which more securely locates and contains the high-absorbency material in a selected way of pockets when the article is dry. However, due to the construction of the pockets, and specifically due to the selection of the water-sensitive attachment means, these pockets are not maintained when the article is fully or partially loaded with liquids. Therefore, it is believed that this absorbent article does not provide a very satisfactory immobilization of the absorbent material in the fully or partially urine loaded state.